Living Lightly Fair: Sept. 20

The Ball State community is invited to the LIVING LIGHTLY FAIR – a resource fair for sustainable lifestyles – on Saturday, September 20, 9 am - 5 pm, at Minnetrista.

The fair provides a full day of speakers, music, art, kids’ activities, and a green marketplace of vendors and exhibitors, all aimed at offering ideas and inspiration for living more sustainably. Admission is FREE.

Faculty: As you put finishing touches on your syllabi, please consider including Living Lightly in your students’ activities!

Highlights of this year’s fair include:

Jim Poyser, Executive Director of Earth Charter Indiana, Director of Youth Power Indiana, and Hoosier Environmental Council’s Environmentalist of the Year for 2013. His featured presentation, “Living Lightly in Heavy Times,” begins at 10:30 am. A former editor of NUVO and Indiana Living Green magazines, Jim brings a surprising sense of humor to his discussions of ecological challenges. (See, for example, his TED Talk entitled “Confessions of a Climate Change Humorist” and his website ApocaDocs.) Engaging youth is one of his central goals, and Jim will share many stories of what Indiana young people are doing to lead us to a more mindful relationship with nature.

Krista Detor, a Bloomington singer/songwriter whose work has been called “a small miracle” by Rolling Stone. She was part of Wilderness Plots, a CD and performance inspired by Scott Russell Sanders’ narratives about the settling of the Midwest. An avid supporter of education, animal welfare, and sustainability, Detor released her latest album, Flat Earth Diary, in January 2014. Her performance begins at 3:45 pm.

A special all-day feature, “Celebrating Educators for Sustainability.” Local educators will have displays showcasing the sustainability-minded activities they’ve undertaken with children and teens in East Central Indiana.

Concurrent speakers will discuss wind and solar energy for the home, aquaponics, landscaping with native plants, beekeeping, non-toxic products for the home and skin, energy reduction, “green” business and community practices, and Farmished, a new organization committed to local, sustainable food production. Visitors can also tour the Permaculture Initiative garden plot (created by BSU students), and the BSU Clay Guild will be on hand to help fair-goers create a River of Fish.

A shuttle bus, sponsored by Freshman Connections, will run between campus and Minnetrista throughout the day. Pick-up and drop-off will occur every half-hour at the Williams circle drive (behind the College of Architecture and Planning).